Some 11 Tory 'in-and-out' MPs received full rebates in last election

Bea Vongdouangchanh HILL TIMES Apr 28 (Full Article)

Eleven Conservative MPs who participated in the "in and out" regional media buy during the last election received full rebates from Elections Canada before the watchdog agency red-flagged the process, put a halt to the rebates, and decided it should inquire further into candidates' advertising expenses. One opposition MP now says those rebates should be returned. In an affidavit filed with the Federal Court as part of the Conservative Party's civil suit against Elections Canada, Janice Vézina, associate deputy chief electoral officer of political financing and chief financial officer at Elections Canada, stated that rebates were given to 17 candidates because no red flags were raised after audits and reviews were done.

Conservative MPs Daniel Petit (Charlesbourg-Haute-Saint-Charles, Que.), Steven Blaney (Lévis-Bellechasse, Que.), Jacques Gourde (Lotbinière-Chutes de la Chaudière, Que.), Luc Harvey (Louis-Hébert, Que.), Pat Davidson (Sarnia-Lambton, Ont.), David Anderson (Cypress Hills-Grasslands, Sask.), Colin Mayes (Okanagan-Shuswap, B.C.), Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier (Beauce, Que.), Canadian Heritage Minister Josée Verner (Louis-Saint Laurent, Que.), Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon (Pontiac, Que.), and Chief Government Whip Jay Hill (Prince George-Peace River, B.C.) were the MPs who received rebates, while six other candidates who did not win seats also received full rebates for their election expenses from Elections Canada. The MPs were reimbursed a total of $421,731.88 for their election expenses.

In these cases, Ms. Vézina noted in her affidavit, "their electoral campaign returns had been reviewed and the final installment of this section 465 reimbursement [was] processed before Elections Canada was alerted to the fact that the regional media buy program might warrant closer examination."

Section 465 of the Canada Elections Act allows candidates who are elected or receive 10 per cent or more of the vote to be reimbursed for 60 per cent of their election expenses, to a maximum of 60 per cent of their spending limit. After these reimbursements were made, "information came to light in the course of the review and audit of the return filed by a candidate of the party, which raised questions as to whether the expense claimed was in fact an expense of the candidate," Ms. Vézina wrote.
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Don Quixote Note: In an earlier posting I noted that In the case of our local M.P. the taxpayer only gets hit for 60% of 10,029.98 or $6,017.99 (Yes Virginia you even get to pay your percentage of the $40 wire transfer charge paid to the TD Canada Trust.) Luckily the watchdog Elections Canada disallowed these expenses and saved the taxpayers $600,000 across Canada. (My Thanks to these bureaucrabs with balls)

It looks like some of the MP's managed to get reimbursement before the scheme was shut down including the campaign of local M.P. Colin Mayes. No doubt if the case is decided in the favour of Elections Canada in court the money will be returned to the Canadian Taxpayer with interest.